In January-March 2024, the capitalization of the agricultural land market in Ukraine increased by UAH 202.5 billion, due to a 7% increase in the number of agricultural land sales transactions and an 11.2% increase in land prices, said Vice President of Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) for Economic Education, Professor Oleg Nivievsky at the seminar “Land Market: New Players, New Challenges, New Prospects” organized by KSE and the USAID AGRO program.
According to his information, in the first quarter of 2024, 25.7 thousand transactions of purchase and sale of agricultural land plots with a total volume of 58.8 thousand hectares were concluded in Ukraine, which is 7% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2023, which recorded a record number of transactions of purchase and sale of agricultural land for the entire time after the start of the full-scale invasion.
In the first three months of this year, the weighted average price of a hectare of agricultural land increased by 11.2%. While in the fourth quarter of last year it amounted to UAH 37.7 thousand, in January-March 2024 it increased to UAH 42.0 thousand per hectare. Thus, the capitalization of the agricultural land market has increased by UAH 202.5 billion since the beginning of this year, stated Nivievsky, and attributed these phenomena, in particular, to the opening of access to the land market for legal entities from January 1, 2024.
“Despite the full-scale war and a rather limited model, the agricultural land market in Ukraine is developing successfully. A clear indication of this is the recent decision of the National Bank to increase the liquidity ratio of agricultural land from 0.35 to 0.5. This has already opened up the possibility for the agricultural sector and landowners to attract additional funding worth $25 billion, which is comparable to the annual financial needs of farmers and landowners,” said the KSE Vice President.
Roman Neter, KSE Agrocenter expert, said that in January-March 2024, 436 legal entities purchased 2957 agricultural plots with a total area of 8.5 thousand hectares. At the same time, a little less than half of the transactions took place in March 2024, when 276 legal entities exercised their right to purchase agricultural land, acquiring 1253 land plots with a total area of 3.5 thou hectares.
He recalled that at the end of 2023, before the launch of the second stage of the land market, a number of experts expressed concerns about the possibility of large players accumulating large areas of farmland. But in the first quarter of 2024, these fears were not confirmed.
“The share of legal entities in the land market in the first quarter was only 14.5%, while the rest of the transactions are still made between individuals. At the same time, the opening of access to the land market for legal entities is already having a positive impact not only on liquidity but also on market transparency,” Nater emphasized.
Ksenia Sydorkina, USAID AGRO Program Director, said that the development of the agricultural land market is increasingly affecting the public finance system of communities after the personal income tax paid by military personnel was redirected to the state budget. Since January 2024, the increase in revenues related to agricultural land has offset the decline in other community tax revenues by a quarter. For example, in February of this year alone, taxes related to agricultural land accounted for 13% of all community tax revenues, compared to 10% in February 2023, and reached UAH 3 billion, which is 20% higher than the same period last year.
“The agricultural land market is an additional resource for the restoration of territories, the potential of which has yet to be realized by joint efforts of the government, lawmakers and communities,” said USAID AGRO Chief of Party and expressed confidence in the need to implement the reform of spatial development of territories and a number of other projects on land consolidation, irrigation development, affordable lending for small and medium-sized agricultural producers, including with the support of the Partial Guarantee Fund for Agricultural Loans, as well as with the support of the Fund.
Sydorkina said that international law experts from the Civitta, Aequo, and EasyBusiness consortium, with the support of the USAID AGRO program, have developed a concept for harmonizing Ukraine’s land legislation with EU law. The concept envisages the development and adoption of 14 legislative acts that will facilitate the approximation of Ukrainian legislation to European law, the development of land relations and the agricultural sector as a whole.
U.S. car sales in the first quarter increased by 7.5 percent year-on-year, MarketWatch wrote.
In January-March 2023, automakers sold 3.59 million cars compared to 3.34 million cars a year earlier.
General Motors sales were up 17.6%, Nissan sales were up 17.3%, Honda Motor Co. sales were up 11.7%, Hyundai sales were up 15.5% and Kia sales were up 21.8%. Stellantis and Toyota worsened by 9.1% and 8.8%, respectively.
The average car loan interest rate reached a 15-year high of 7%, and the average monthly payment for a new car was a record $730.
In 2022, automakers couldn’t meet demand due to a chip shortage and sold only 13.9 million cars. Previously, about 17 million cars were sold in a year. This year, sales will total 14.8 million cars, analyst firm Edmunds predicts.
Sales of new electric cars in February this year have tripled compared to the same month in 2022 – up to 413 units, which is also 40% more than in January this year, reports Ukravtoprom in Telegram channel.
According to the association on Monday, the best-seller in the new electric car market remains the Volkswagen ID.4 – 134 units.
Dong Feng (Honda) M-NV is second with 86 units, and Volkswagen ID.6 is third with 33 cars registered.
The fourth most popular model is compact Honda E (27 units), and the third one is Mercedes-Benz EQC (16 units).
According to Ukravtoprom, a total of 708 new electric cars were sold in Ukraine in January-February 2023, which is 2.6 times more than during the same period in 2022.
As earlier reported, according to Ukravtoprom, in 2022, the share of new electric cars in their total sales in Ukraine (13.6 thousand units) rose to 17% from 14% a year earlier (i.e. to more than 2.3 thousand units – IF).
A drop in sales of more than 30% due to Russian aggression was experienced by 47% of Ukrainian companies, including 19% with a drop exceeding 50%, agriculture, retail, mining and metals industries suffered the most, these are the results of a new business resilience survey presented by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).
“The war has taken a huge toll on Ukrainian businesses, but companies have shown extraordinary resilience and some have even found opportunities for growth,” the report said.
According to a study conducted jointly with McKinsey & Company Ukraine on the eve of the first anniversary of the war, in 2022, 3% of companies increased sales, while 10% either maintained them or kept the decline within 10%. Opportunities for growth were noted by representatives of the banking and financial sectors and IT.
Only 4% reduced the number of employees by more than 30%, while 29% of the companies had the figure in the 10-30% range and 2% even increased the number of staff.
It is indicated that 4% of companies have stopped operations and do not know when they can resume them, while 30% stopped, but have already resumed.
According to respondents, in 2023 the pressure of war on business will remain or even increase. Also among the discouraging forecasts is the reduction of aggregate demand, as GDP growth remains uncertain and the purchasing power of consumers may decline due to depletion of savings, rising unemployment and reduced wages.
As stated in the survey results, 90% of companies have developed internal “contingency plans,” but more than 40% of respondents believe they are not effective enough.
As part of these plans, 61% created pre-war special task forces (multifunctional teams or with a specialization in the risk management function), 33% developed such plans with business units, and 6% enlisted professional outside help to prepare plans. Also, 40% of companies admitted the plan did not work as expected, including 29% who did not foresee the extent of failure and 7% who did not have the necessary resources to implement the plan.
According to the published information, the main military challenge for 25% of respondents was decrease in demand for products or services (60% in machine building, 42% in retail), for 23% – physical damage to facilities (67% in FMCG, 50% in transport/machinery), 19% – disruption of supply chains (pharma – 50%, machine building – 40%).
The problem of energy supply was named as the main problem by 10% of respondents (IT – 30%, banks – 25%), but among the top three problems it is in the lead with 66%, ahead of supply chain disruption 60% and reduced demand 52%.
Among the key priorities for effective contingency planning, companies highlighted an agile operating model and a strong corporate culture.
“While an agile operating model is seen as the most useful factor for overcoming the ongoing crisis, among the priorities companies see for their future development, respondents cited diversification, better contingency planning and building resilient teams,” the survey noted.
In the future to overcome the crisis 46% of companies will pay attention to the strategy and diversification of business, which requires rethinking investment plans, 29% more effectively plan their actions, 18% will attract and maintain a sustainable team and workforce.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine is the most influential international business association serving over 600 member companies in Ukraine since 1992, bringing the united voice of American, international and Ukrainian companies that have invested over $50 billion in Ukraine and remain committed to the country.
Sales of medicines in 2022 amounted to 46 billion UAH.
According to the company SMD, according to their study, in particular, in the retail segment in the category of pharmaceuticals market decline was 37% in volume and 28% in money terms.
At the same time in public procurement the fall in drug sales was 26% in volume and 21% in monetary terms.
“Despite the difficult situation, the state has even increased budgetary support and already one third of the entire drug market has state funding. Also the share of reimbursement has increased significantly due to the expansion of the program “Affordable Medicines” in such categories as diabetes (insulin), mental and behavioral disorders”, – the company said.
As reported, the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market in 2022 decreased by 42% in volume terms and by 23% in monetary terms, the cumulative sales in the pharmaceutical market in 2022 amounted to about 61 billion UAH in pharmacy entrance prices.
MHP agricultural holding, the largest chicken producer in Ukraine in October 2022 increased production of chicken by 1% compared to the previous month – to 59.61 thousand tons, while its sales reduced by 2% – to 62.36 thousand tons, according to the statement of agricultural group on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.
It is noted that the volume of chicken production in October 2022 is still 12% behind the same month of the “pre-war” 2021, but its sales exceeded last October’s figures by 11%.
It is specified that the share of chicken export shipments in October this year increased by 4 percentage points (p.p.) over September 2022, and by 3 p.p. over October 2021, to 60%.
A total of 37,69,000 tons of poultry were exported this October, up 6% from September 2022 and 18% from October 2021.
The domestic market sold 24,67 thousand tons of chicken meat in October 2022, 11% less than the previous month but 2% more than last October.
The average price of poultry meat sold in October 2022 was similar to the level of September this year – $1.93/kg, while in October a year earlier it was $1.70/kg (down 14%).
During the reporting period, MHP has reduced the sales of processed meat products and semi-finished products by 9% compared to September – up to 2.97 thousand tons, and this figure is still 40% lower than in October 2021.
According to agroholding, in October 2022 the sunflower oil sales fell by 71% against September this year, and by 51% against October 2021, to 12,800 tons, while soybean oil sales increased by 81% against September this year and by 86% against October last year, to 7,38 thousand tons.
MHP also pointed out that this season the holding is harvesting 335 ths. ha, with sunflower harvesting fully completed, the soybean harvesting is almost finished and corn is harvested on 75% of the area.
The winter crops sowing campaign is completed on about 74 thsd. ha (winter wheat – about 55%, winter rape – about 45%).
MHP is the largest producer of poultry in Ukraine. It is also engaged in the production of grain, sunflower oil, and meat processing products. To the European market, MHP supplies chilled half-carcass chickens, which are processed, including at its facilities in the Netherlands and Slovakia. In February 2019, the agroholding completed its acquisition of Slovenian company Perutnina Ptuj.
MHP posted a net profit of $393 million in 2021, compared with a net loss of $133 million in 2020, while its revenue rose 25 percent to $2.37 billion.
Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosyuk is the founder, majority shareholder and board chairman of MHP.
